


After The Dust Settled

by intern_at_german_chapterhouse



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Het Relationship, Character Death, F/M, Implied/Referenced Character Death, POV Pepper Potts, Parent Pepper Potts, Parent Tony Stark, Pepper Potts Feels, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Post-Canon, post Avengers 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-09
Updated: 2018-07-09
Packaged: 2019-06-07 20:44:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15227526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intern_at_german_chapterhouse/pseuds/intern_at_german_chapterhouse
Summary: Thanos is defeated and the snap deaths have been reversed. But their win cost the Avengers dearly. Especially Pepper.





	After The Dust Settled

Pepper Potts was exhausted. Not just from the ceremony itself, but from everything that had happened in the previous weeks. Thanos' attack, Tony's fight to get back everyone they'd lost, everything that happened until Thanos was defeated.  
She had been so glad to have both Peter and Tony back, the boy had become part of the family ever since he went to Germany with Tony, he'd hung out at Stark tower after school, working on his science projects or just messing around with Tony and sometimes Pepper too.  
And then... They'd really thought Thanos was dead.  
Steve and Peter and Rhodes, they all wanted to talk to her, wanted to tell her what happened but she didn't care. She couldn't. She was just too exhausted.  
The ceremony was beautiful. All the Avengers that were still left were there. Thor said he couldn't stay, he had to take care of the Asgardian survivors. Pepper thought he just couldn't take another loss, not after his brother wasn't under the revived victims of Thanos' killing spree. Peter had tried to give a speech but just a few words in he broke down crying. His aunt had been there and took him away. Steve did give a speech but he sounded distanced, the horrors of the last weeks visible on his face.  
Pepper had just stood there. Staring straight ahead. She couldn't even look at the casket. The empty casket. They couldn't even retrieve enough of Tony's body to bury it. She kept staring at the two headstones next to where Tony's would be put up in a few weeks. Howard's was slightly taller than Maria's. Pepper knew there was an empty space next to Tony's grave, for her. They weren't technically married yet but Tony had taken precautions. She hated him for it. He knew how dangerous it was, all of it. But how could she hate him for saving the world, how could she truly hate him for giving his life so that she and everyone he loved could live?  
She didn't hate him for doing what he did, she hated him for dying. For leaving her alone.  
Right after the ceremony it started raining. As if the world herself was mourning her greatest hero. Or maybe Mother Earth was crying because Pepper couldn't.  
Miraculously Stark Tower had survived. Some of the Avengers had moved in since Tony had designated several floors to his friends, even after their fight in Germany. Wanda lived in the rooms that were meant for her and Vision, Clint brought his whole family to live there after their house had been destroyed. Pepper could tell that he missed Natasha, just like Steve did. he herself couldn't even think of the ones they lost. Natasha and Bucky and Fury and... The list was too long.  
After a long ride up in the elevator, Pepper stepped into their, no, her living room. The traces of Tony were everywhere. Half an Iron Man suit's arm was laying on the sofa. There were sketches on a whiteboard in one corner, both Tony and Peter had signed them. Tony had left stains all over from blueberries he had dropped or coffee mug he had pushed over when he got excited or had a new idea he needed to try out right at that moment.  
She couldn't look at any of it, she just walked into the bedroom. The closet door was still wide open. Since Tony had died, Pepper spent the nights in a hotel room. She couldn't fall asleep in the bed she used to share with him.  
Tony must have left the doors open the last time he opened them. He was looking for a shirt when he found the one she had put in there the night before. " _World's Greatest Dad_ ," it said. It was cheesy, Pepper was well aware of that, but Tony had cried and smiled and he looked so happy. The memory made her heart ache. He'd put the shirt on and hugged her, still crying. His dream had come true he said. He was going to be a father.  
And then the call came. They ignored it at first, dismissed it as unimportant, something they could deal with later. But it didn't stop. Tony's last words to her were "We'll pick up right here tonight, okay? I love you!" before he stepped into his Iron Man suit, still wearing the shirt. She never saw him again.  
Suddenly her eyes fell on the bed. There was a little package she knew hadn't been there the last time she'd been in the room. Her name was printed on it and she sat down next to it, taking it in her lap and opened it.  
A shirt fell out. White with blue letters. " _World's Greatest Mom_ ," it said. A note was pinned to the collar, Pepper knew the handwriting. It was Tony's, or better it was the handwriting of one of Tony's suits, practically his but just a tiny bit different. " _I thought you deserved one too. Love you_."  
And then Pepper Potts cried for the first time since she had lost the love of her life. But through the tears, she smiled, knowing she was going to be okay, somehow.


End file.
